Mindi Smith gives us some great advice on making the most out of your cardio by using a jump rope every time you take a break. Enjoy!

Remember: ALWAYS be safe and cautious when exercising and to make the most of it drink a PROTEINWATER or PROTEINBLITZ after!

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Mindi Smith and James Ellis give a great tip about a very tricky workout.  Whenever performing new exercises please remember to be careful and HAVE FUN!!

If you have any questions please post them here and we will have one of our team of experts answer them for you!

Thank You

DESIGNER WHEY

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Hey Friends!
 

My scale must have been on the fritz when I weighted in at the 278. I had to change the batteries. I say that because I got on the scale today and it said 267. I was very happy!

Hey Friends I am moving up I and finally on FaceBook! I did not realize how many relatives I have on there. So if you have FaceBook look me up! cammiegibson@gmail.com or Camille Gibson and you can find me. Oh course I am promoting my Designer Whey! I love these products; the taste, the help in losing weight and energy is priceless. I believe in Designer Whey’s purity and goodness to be the best protein supplement out there. I know my progress is slow but I rather have the weight come off at a steady rate then dramatic change. Dramatic is not good for me. Losing weight slower is better in the long run. I do have to work on the exercise part. My family and I are riding bike more often so that is good.

I hope this finds you well and healthier then the day before, be sure to drink your whey everyday!
 

Camille

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Sneaking Health Into Your Day

If you’ve been reading my posts, you probably realize that I am not a natural exerciser. Natural couch spud is more like it. And I’m also not a naturally healthy eater — in fact, it’s something I struggle with. But in my research and interviews for the health articles I write, I’ve come across lots of ways to trick yourself and to “sneak” healthy eating habits into your day so it doesn’t feel like such a burden. Here are some that work for me.

Box it. When you order a meal at a restaurant, ask the server to pack up half the meal in a to-go box before serving you. I like to eat out at restaurants way more than I should, and this tip keeps me from chowing down on a huge meal (since we all know how big restaurant portion sizes are). I don’t do this every time, but when I do, the server looks confused at first, and then is understanding when I explain why I’m making that strange request.

Healthy-up fatty foods. If you can’t resist fatty dishes like mac and cheese and meatloaf, try bulking up the dish with good-for-you grains and veggies. These higher-fiber, higher-nutrient foods will replace some of the less healthy ingredients, and they also fill you up more so you’ll eat less. Try adding oatmeal to meatloaf, tossing shredded carrots into muffin mix, and hiding grated zucchini in casseroles. I like to add lots of finely-chopped broccoli and bell peppers to store-bought macaroni salad.

Go undercover. Feeling hunger pangs when you’re on the go is the perfect excuse to run through the drive through and gobble down a large order of fries. But if you carry your own healthy snacks, you’ll be ready when hunger hits. For example, I always carry a baggie full of unsalted raw cashews, which I buy at Trader Joe’s. Other good snacks include whole wheat pretzels, fruit like apples and bananas, and lowfat popcorn.

Pack it up.  Brian Wansink, Ph.D., author of Mindless Eating: Why We Eat More Than We Think (Bantam 2006), and his colleagues did studies to find out if people eat more from large packages than from small ones. The researchers sent people home with either a half-pound, one-pound, or two-pound bag of M&Ms and some videotapes. The researchers asked for the subjects’ impression on the videos, but they were really interested in whether the size of the bag influenced what they ate. The outcome? Snackers with the one-pound bag ate twice as much as the people with the half-pound bag. Take a tip from this study and buy your snacks in single-serving sizes, or purchase big bags and portion out small servings into sandwich bags yourself. When I snack at home (my favorite is lime-flavored tortilla chips), I always put a small amount into a bowl and then put the bag away so I’m not tempted to grab more.

Take small steps. Recently, I started replacing my usual ranch salad dressing with fat-free raspberry vinaigrette. It’s such a small change, but, based on the nutrition info from the dressing packets I get at lunch, it saves me about 200 calories per salad. I’ve also stopped buttering my bread when I eat out at a certain chain restaurant that offers up big bread baskets. One tablespoon of butter has around 100 calories and 12 grams of fat — and considering how much bread I sometimes eat, that’s a lot of fat and calories! Other small steps you can take include switching from regular to fat-free mayo on your sandwiches, putting lowfat milk in your coffee instead of half-and-half, and leaving the shredded cheese, croutons, or bacon bits off your salad.

These tips have helped me cut calories without feeling the pinch. I hope they work for you, too — and of course, you can probably come up with lots of sneaky ideas on your own!

Stay healthy,

Linda

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James Ellis shares a quick tip on taking breaks during your cardio workouts. Stay safe guys and look forward to a new episode of DESIGNER WHEY Healthy Minute every week

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I find it very hard to find time for a good abdominal routine after or before my workouts. I am one of those people who only have a set amount of time that I can allot to working out everyday and if I use that time for ab workouts then I fall short of completing my other workouts – which for my personal goals are far more important. But I do not want to leave my abs out because they are not only a key factor in complete physical appearance but they are extremely essential to building a solid core which is one of the biggest factors in upper body strength. I always say to myself, I will just do abs when I get home from the gym, but that never has happened. So lately I have been trying something new – when I do my regular workouts and not the experimental ones. I have been doing a set of about 20-25 crunches in between every set of lifting reps that I do.

Fitness Model James Ellis

This not only has been building my abs back to where I want to see them but it has also been increasing my overall workout stamina. Putting your body in constant motion for an hour and fifteen minutes to an hour and a half is a great workout. When doing this I am able to complete my full workout without relinquishing any amount of time to an abs workout because I am getting my ab workout in while I rest in between sets and because my rest time is spent doing abs, my endurance is getting even stronger.

This is how I have been doing my workouts. On a day where I would do biceps I would do four sets of curls with about 6-7 max reps on each of them. But in between the sets I would do a set of 25 crunches regular crunches. The when I switch to another exercise like hammer curls for instance, I would follow the same regimen but instead of doing normal crunches I would do a set of 25 side crunches and then vary on the next muscle exercise I did. I haven’t found a way to incorporate weights into the ab work out without using machines and taking up two things at once at the gym, but just working my abs by way of crunches and other non-weight involved exercises, I have been able to see a clear result. For about the first week and a half I thought this workout was too exhausting, but that was because I was trying to do too many ab reps in between sets. I was trying to do 50 crunches instead of 25. But after I lowered the amount that I was doing I was able to finish both workouts in the time it takes to do one and not feel like I had absolutely no energy left. When I am at the gym at my condos where there is never anyone there and I can use two machines at once without holding anyone up, I will also try to incorporate running for my rest time. Like I mentioned before, I only do this when I am doing my normal routine and not when I am varying from routine to routine, because it really only personally works for me when I am doing my normal lifting sets. But this can be a good thing to incorporate into cardio or leg workouts as a break that is not really a break.

Proper Crunches Thanks to YouTube ID masterblevins

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   As usual I have been messing with my routines at the gym. This week I tried something I had read about a little while back. I couldn’t find the name of what exactly it is called but I refer to it as the “pump and shape” workout. The main reason as to why I tried this work out this week is because I have been worried that I am not getting enough definition in my upper arms. The workout is simple, it is a normal six to seven max weight reps for four sets and then a twenty rep fifth set with a lower weight and a natural non weight exercise for a specific muscle. So for example, this week when I was doing triceps, I started my workout doing hammer extensions and I did four set of 6 reps at 70 pounds with each arm. Then I lowered the weight for the fifth set down to 40 pounds and turned out twenty reps. But the trick was to do the lower weight reps quicker and with more muscle focus, meaning that when doing the extension I never let my arm come past a parallel position to the ground and while keeping that form, I would speed up the extension. Then after I finished those off, I did a set of 25 diamond push ups for my non weight, because they have a heavy emphasis on the tricep. I followed this regimen for six more sets of tricep exercises varying the type of push up I did. I did this for when I worked biceps and then when I did back and for my natural non weight exercises for both I would do pull ups and chin extensions. I did the same for Chest and then shoulders as well but with different variations of push ups and when I was done with my week I could definitely see the results.
    Although it was a really beneficial and effective workout system, it was extremely tiring, so much so that I would never do it for more than a week at a time. I think that if I did this for consecutive weeks, then I would get burned out and not want to get into the gym every week. It is really a good thing to throw into your training system when you have hit a plateau or when you are trying to build up your stamina or even when you just want to vary from the norm for a week. This work out is a painful one that isn’t very fun, but it will whip you right into shape and begin to chisel away at your muscle’s definition while increasing overall mass. It’s the type of workout that you really feel great about after doing it, but at the same time you just want to go home and die on your couch afterward. So pretty much, like with the rest of the workouts, I say give it a try. Find a way to make it work for the type of workouts you do. That is probably the best advice I can give: curve the workouts to fit your specific needs. With all of these workouts, you can vary them so that you are targeting specific goals that you set for yourself. Just keep varying your cycles until you truly find one that works and then stick with that for a month or two and then switch it up again.

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   Recently I have been on this kick to try and find different workouts that allow me to accelerate my personal physical achievement levels while at the same time renewing my enjoyment of going to the gym on a daily basis. My main goal is to steadily increase my body and muscle mass while maintaining a solid physical appearance, which so far is going great. But I have found that if I don’t constantly mix up my routines I physically peak and the burn out rate sets in. Now you may call it something else, but everyone faces that burn out rate at some point or another. Its that pivotal moment(s) when you have come home from a ten hour day at work and still have other important things to do like studying, making time for that significant other in your life, grabbing a beer because you need one, or even catching a show that you like, and you need to decide if you want to go to the gym or not. This moment is huge, because you know you will feel like crap if you don’t go but you have no real motivation to go because it is the same old song and dance every time you go to the gym. Well, I found something as of late that has not only been a good motivator for me when this decision pops up but also an extremely effective workout tool, and that is immediate muscle compression workouts.
   One of the main reasons why this workout cycle is so appealing to me is because it gives me a break. Normally, I do heavy lifting six days a week, targeting different muscles each day. But with IMCW’s (we are moving this into an acronym) I only have to do three or four days of heavy lifting. Here is how it works. IMCW’s are simple they are just workouts that target your complementary muscles in a single more effective, more intense session. For example, normally I would work back (secondary biceps) one day and chest (secondary triceps) the very next because they are complementary muscles, and by working these muscles this way you are causing a compression on the body which slowly after time increases muscle mass. But IMCW’s are different, because you would be doing both chest and back in the same day rotating from one set of one exercise on back immediately followed by one set of one exercise on chest. You would then do this until you finished up your sets on both exercises and then move onto two more exercises, and then so one and so fourth. Then the next day you have off, to do cardio or abs or legs or just simply have it off (it is absolutely imperative that you do not work any of the muscles that you worked the day before, as you risk permanent muscle damage: work other muscles the next day or simply take the day off). I usually try to get four sets in on each exercise and about ten exercises per workout (five exercises per each of the two complementary workouts). Sometimes these workouts are referred to as blitz workouts because that is what you are doing; you are blitzing/shocking your system. Now because of this I would recommend throwing one of these cycles in a month as a break from the ordinary routine. Some people’s bodies can handle these on a constant basis, but other’s can’t so it is important to find that balance. You can do this with all the different complementary muscles in your body, like triceps and biceps, back and chest, etc. It is in fact effective and you will see results if it is done right (depending on diet and nutrition of course). Remember I am by far no expert, just an average Joe who likes to go to the gym and try new things and with anything new, I recommend that you do a little research first and make sure that this type of workout will yield the results that you are in fact looking for. Also, make sure you ease into these workouts, you will probably be at the gym for about an hour and fifteen minutes or more, and you will be working out the entire time, because there really is no rest.

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Hey Biggest Loser and Designer Whey fans!

Ali Vincent is an amazing and inspirational person...

I am so EXCITED to have this opportunity to continue to share my journey with all of you.  It truly is a journey!  If I had thought of it as a destination I know that I would never have been able to create the results I did.  Some days I wake up rearing to go, others not so much.  That is why it is soooooo important to have support systems and routines in place, so when you forget why you are waking up at the crack of dawn or packing a weeks worth of snacks… there are people to remind you

So as I sit here drinking my Red Raspberry Protein 2Go (since I’m traveling) pondering how to explain what you can expect from my Blogs, I’m realizing that there might not be a ‘perfect’ way to wrap up my blogging   I just want you to realize that everyday is a new day with new opportunities.  Now I imagine that some blogs will be more inspiring than others as I travel throughout the country meeting all of you and sharing those experience here on ‘our space’ if you will and then there will probably be those that are just me sharing day to day experiences and new AW HA’s.  It’s so amazing to me the things that I know I have heard a million times over in my life and on my journey to living an active, fun filled, balanced life that I never really heard before and become AW HA moments

Also keep in mind I am just a regular girl like most of you or maybe like a friend or a sister of your’s and not a Pulitzer prize winning author.  So if smiley faces and run-on sentence’s make you kringe throughout your body, like nails on a chalkboard do for me, then please allow me this opportunity to apologize in advance as I blog like I think and talk.  Those of you who know me from the Biggest Loser or magazine/TV interviews or from meeting me throughout my travels, know that I get so excited that I often get ahead of myself   So, I am sorry and hope that being me does not prevent YOU from checking out my blog and hopefully getting helpful information or an opportunity to just smile at times.

So there you have it in a nutshell, oh and if you have any questions email them and I’ll do my best to answer them

Believe It. Be It.- Ali

Ps-  I’m in Spokane this weekend for the Woman’s Show so come down and say Hi as well as I’ll give you a Biggest Loser protein 2Go sample…. you can always find out where I’ll be on my website www.alivincent.com ( How do you make that show up in pink? instead of blue )

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This is the “Transformation” Episode. And boy was it. But before we saw what Fashion Guru Tim Gunn did with the contestants, there of course was a challenge. They were strapped to cable wires and had to go 700 feet to the other side. Winner gets a $25,000 kitchen make over.

The teams all worked hard to keep their balance as they walked across their thin wire to the other side of the canyon. Each one tried their best to not look down the steep canyon and instead focus on trying to complete the challenge. Tara struggled when she fell off the cable, but eventually found her way back on. Filipe took a strong lead in the challenge. He didn’t keep the lead long; once Tara got her focus back, she gained back the minute she lost and shocked everybody by winning the challenge. Why people were shocked that Tara won, is a mystery to me.

Then the transformations by Tim Gunn. What can you say…they all looked fantastic!!! It is always motivating to see how people can change with EXERCISE and a change of eating habits.            

Weigh In: Everyone is so surprised that Helen lost 7 pounds and had a percentage weight loss of 4.14% which puts her in first place for the first time. Then Laura gets on the scale and due to her hip fracture has not done much of anything this week. She gains 3 pounds. Below the line are Laura and Kristen. Laura goes home.

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